![]() ![]() Though it wouldn’t have been obvious to anyone but him, John Coltrane was at a major crossroads in his career when he played this four-night New York residency in 1961. Sam Cooke, 'Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963'.The clear highlight is “One More Time/Aerodynamic,” on which DP toss two of their biggest tracks into a particle accelerator, creating a single, arena-annihilating monster. (This is the part where I get to humblebrag that I was there, and it was just as revelatory as you’ve heard.) Recorded a year later in Paris, “Alive 2007” captures a virtually identical show - easy to do with no acoustic instruments or live vocals to worry about - as the two robot rockers mash up their catalog in a variety of clever, cheeky, and infectious ways. One of the few instances in the modern era where a single live appearance could turn a whole career around, Daft Punk’s light-up-pyramid performance at Coachella in spring of 2006 put the French house duo’s then-flagging trajectory on a whole new course, setting the stage for its Grammy-winning comeback album, and lighting the fuse for the Stateside EDM craze that would break the banks at Vegas casinos for years to come. ![]() Her earlier material is largely absent here, but when she does dip into her folk catalog - such as the radically reworked “Woodstock” that closes the show - it’s less a concession to her fans than a challenge, and a warning that she’s not looking to get herself back to the garden anytime soon. Backed by a who’s-who of fusion greats, from Pat Metheny and Michael Brecker to tragic bass guitar god Jaco Pastorius - whose lyrical fretless basslines are prominent enough that he’s as much Mitchell’s co-star as her sideman – Mitchell proves herself just as sharp a bandleader as a songwriter. But if you really want to understand why she’s properly regarded as one of greatest musical minds of the 20th century, it’s her later, headier, more jazz-inspired albums that really stake the claim, and this 1979 live run-through of some of those highlights is an excellent place to start. ![]() If you’re mostly familiar with Joni Mitchell from her songs that wind up in films and YouTube cover videos, her first live record, “Miles of Aisles,” offers plenty of pleasant renditions of that material. Spiritualized, 'Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997'.A masterpiece listen hitting all the nostalgia buttons as funk and R&B collides head-on with hip-hop and pop, and a celebration of Black excellence at its finest, this girl rules the world. Still, there’s no denying Bey classics like “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and “Crazy In Love” and the three-song Destiny’s Child reunion alone is worth the price of admission. Rooted rhythmically with a drumline and brass band involving some two dozen musicians, Beyonce, whose credits on the project include live performance direction, executive production and music direction, proves that she’s one of the most innovative and visually arresting artists to exist in popular music - not that it was in any doubt - and that her songs, as sing-along-friendly as they may be, have a more pressing message to the universe. The 40-track companion piece to Beyonce’s groundbreaking Coachella 2018 performance, chronicled in superb detail in the Netflix documentary “Homecoming,” was a musical highlight of the decade that exists in its own lane. ![]()
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